Sep 17, 2014, 10:45 am
Last edit by: Tanic
Reminder: you must enroll and select Southwest as your airline BEFORE making a reimbursable purchase.
Some have suggested the need to wait several hours or even a day before making the purchase, but there are also several DPs that worked without waiting that long.
(BTW, you will often hear people refer to Southwest as WN. WN is the IATA code for Southwest Airlines. SW is the IATA code for Air Namibia.)
Caution: As of late July 2019, reports are that direct gift card purchases are no longer being reimbursed.
To purchase click here: https://www.southwest.com/gift-card/create-card.html Caution: Do NOT login to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account when making the purchase.
What does appear to work is buying flight tickets less than $100, OR using gift cards to get the charged amount down to less than $100.
Always read the last few pages to get up-to-date DPs.
Some have suggested the need to wait several hours or even a day before making the purchase, but there are also several DPs that worked without waiting that long.
(BTW, you will often hear people refer to Southwest as WN. WN is the IATA code for Southwest Airlines. SW is the IATA code for Air Namibia.)
Caution: As of late July 2019, reports are that direct gift card purchases are no longer being reimbursed.
What does appear to work is buying flight tickets less than $100, OR using gift cards to get the charged amount down to less than $100.
Always read the last few pages to get up-to-date DPs.
Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: WN (2011-2019)
Jul 5, 2019, 1:59 pm
#1951
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: Whoever Has the Best Bonus
Posts: 5,183
Found a couple of one way flights around the $100 mark. I'm thinking about buying a two $10 southwest egift cards (the minimum each), not expecting to be reimbursed on that package, then buying the tickets leaving $100 each.
As one of the first people who didn't get reimbursed back in early June I'm torn whether to try again and end up with another flight I *can* take but only really want to take if it was reimbursed.
As one of the first people who didn't get reimbursed back in early June I'm torn whether to try again and end up with another flight I *can* take but only really want to take if it was reimbursed.
Jul 5, 2019, 2:18 pm
#1952
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 168
Not sure if this still works either, but I saw DPs elsewhere that SW flights under $100 were triggering the credit: frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/amex-airline-fee-reimbursements-still-works/
Tried this and posted in early June when I had $100 credit left on my Platinum:
6/4/19 - Purchased two flights for $48.98 and a third ticket with companion pass with $5.60 in taxes/fees
6/6/19 - Transactions posted
6/7/19 - Counter decreased from $100 to $0
6/8/19 - Credits posted ($48.98, $5.60, $45.42)
Tried this and posted in early June when I had $100 credit left on my Platinum:
6/4/19 - Purchased two flights for $48.98 and a third ticket with companion pass with $5.60 in taxes/fees
6/6/19 - Transactions posted
6/7/19 - Counter decreased from $100 to $0
6/8/19 - Credits posted ($48.98, $5.60, $45.42)
Jul 6, 2019, 1:39 pm
#1954
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Truth or Consequences, NM
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, UA Silver, Mobile Passport Unobtanium
Posts: 6,195
The airlines like to market E+ seats as an "upgrade"; for AMEX incidental credit purposes, they are not (or, shall I say, historically they have not been considered "upgrades" by AMEX and have thus been reimbursed.)
Jul 7, 2019, 1:11 pm
#1955
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 3
FYI...purchased an international ticket on 7/2....didn’t get reimbursed for the plane tickets (full purchase price tickets or tickets that were partially paid with unused funds and partially with the credit card.)
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
Jul 7, 2019, 7:12 pm
#1956
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: AA Plat, AS Gold 75k, Marriott Titanium, IHG Gold
Posts: 17
FYI...purchased an international ticket on 7/2....didn’t get reimbursed for the plane tickets (full purchase price tickets or tickets that were partially paid with unused funds and partially with the credit card.)
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
Jul 7, 2019, 7:41 pm
#1957
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 4
FYI...purchased an international ticket on 7/2....didn’t get reimbursed for the plane tickets (full purchase price tickets or tickets that were partially paid with unused funds and partially with the credit card.)
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
But did get reimbursed $45.60 and $95 for the taxes/fees on the companion pass ticket on 7/5.
Jul 7, 2019, 9:20 pm
#1958
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
So if I book an international flight with points and pay for the international taxes/fees with my Platinum, then I should get credited for the fees. Once reimbursed, I can cancel the points flight and allow the paid fees to be credited to my southwest account, right?
Jul 7, 2019, 11:25 pm
#1959
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 4
Credit successfully applied to flight booked partially with WN travel funds.
7/3 $95 charge posted
7/6 $95 credit reimbursed
AMEX Plat
7/3 $95 charge posted
7/6 $95 credit reimbursed
AMEX Plat
Jul 8, 2019, 7:20 am
#1960
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 12
Sorry forgot to quote message. Done as separate one-way purchases.
Jul 8, 2019, 8:15 am
#1961
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: AA Plat, AS Gold 75k, Marriott Titanium, IHG Gold
Posts: 17
I just recently got the Platinum and Gold cards right before the GC trick stopped working. So I have the full $200 and $100. Tried the partial payment method with WN (Southwest) and I'm not sure if anyone confirmed it, but I believe the residual amount needs to be less than $100. The only reason I tried something greater than $100 was someone in the DL forum posted having a full $200 reimbursed after having a residual of $224. So to be on the safe side, I'd suggest residual amounts of less than $100. WN GC are also instantaneous, just a pain to do two transactions. I purchased both tickets on July 4th, posted July 5th. The <$100 credit posted this morning 7/8 (shows 7/7, counter moved from $100 to $10.02 on 7/7). No credit on the other one yet, and the counter hasn't moved.
Jul 8, 2019, 8:28 am
#1962
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,061
I just recently got the Platinum and Gold cards right before the GC trick stopped working. So I have the full $200 and $100. Tried the partial payment method with WN (Southwest) and I'm not sure if anyone confirmed it, but I believe the residual amount needs to be less than $100. The only reason I tried something greater than $100 was someone in the DL forum posted having a full $200 reimbursed after having a residual of $224. So to be on the safe side, I'd suggest residual amounts of less than $100. WN GC are also instantaneous, just a pain to do two transactions. I purchased both tickets on July 4th, posted July 5th. The <$100 credit posted this morning 7/8 (shows 7/7, counter moved from $100 to $10.02 on 7/7). No credit on the other one yet, and the counter hasn't moved.
Last edited by danhouston; Jul 8, 2019 at 1:52 pm Reason: Remove quoted image
Jul 8, 2019, 10:13 am
#1963
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: Whoever Has the Best Bonus
Posts: 5,183
I just recently got the Platinum and Gold cards right before the GC trick stopped working. So I have the full $200 and $100. Tried the partial payment method with WN (Southwest) and I'm not sure if anyone confirmed it, but I believe the residual amount needs to be less than $100. The only reason I tried something greater than $100 was someone in the DL forum posted having a full $200 reimbursed after having a residual of $224. So to be on the safe side, I'd suggest residual amounts of less than $100. WN GC are also instantaneous, just a pain to do two transactions. I purchased both tickets on July 4th, posted July 5th. The <$100 credit posted this morning 7/8 (shows 7/7, counter moved from $100 to $10.02 on 7/7). No credit on the other one yet, and the counter hasn't moved.
Jul 8, 2019, 11:21 am
#1964
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Dallas, TX
Programs: WN A-list Preferred and CP, AA EXP, Hilton Diamond, RIP Kimpton
Posts: 853
I was able to get a southwest charge reimbursed the other day. My fare was $229.96 and I paid it this way:
91.99 - travel funds from a prior reservation
40.00 - purchased a WN GC using my Hilton card while not signed into my account. This was not reimbursed
97.97 - charged on my AMEX Hilton card. Purchased the flight on July 3, The $97.97 was reimbursed on July 6.
91.99 - travel funds from a prior reservation
40.00 - purchased a WN GC using my Hilton card while not signed into my account. This was not reimbursed
97.97 - charged on my AMEX Hilton card. Purchased the flight on July 3, The $97.97 was reimbursed on July 6.
Jul 8, 2019, 1:25 pm
#1965
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 22
I'm curious if anybody has tried charging a larger amount than $100 to the card and gotten reimbursed. It seems the only way to get this to work for airfare is to:
- Use a gift card for part of the fare
- Charge the rest (<$100 total) to the card